In this paper some problems concerning universality in families of n-dimensional rational spaces are given. Bibliography: 17 titles.All the spaces considered in this paper are metrically separable. A space T is called (isometrically) universal in a family Sp of spaces if T E Sp and for every X E Sp there exists an (isometric) embedding of X into T. Let Sp be a family of spaces. We denote by ~/(Sp) the family of spaces which is defined as follows: a space X belongs to ~(Sp) if X has a base B of open sets such that the boundary Bd(U) of any element U E B belongs to Sp.Suppose ~~ = Sp and ~n(Sp) = ~(~n-'(Sp)) for any n = 1,2, .... In what follows we denote by the family of all countable spaces (the empty set and finite sets are considered here as countable), The elements of the family ~n(M), n = 1, 2,..., are called spaces of rational dimension not greater than n (see, for example, [3] and [15]) or n-dimensional rational spaces. Obviously, ~I(~M) coincides with the family of rational spaces, which were considered by different authors under different names. So, for example, in [14] and [17] it is actually proved that there is no universal element in the family of all rational compacts. Earlier, in [16], it was proved that there is no universal element in the family of all peripherally finite compacts (the author uses another term), which is a subfamily of rational compacts.In and [9]. In these papers the following property of universal spaces is also considered. Let Sp be a family of spaces and (Sp)I its subfamily of power not greater than continuum. We say that a universal space 7' for the family Sp has the property of finite intersection with respect to the subfamily (Sp)I if for any X E Sp there exists an embedding ix : X ~ T such that the set iy(Y) f'3 iz(Z) is finite for any two different elements Y and Z of the family Sp, at least one of which belongs to (Sp)I.In [2], universality in the family of n-dimensional rational spaces for n = 1, 2,... is considered. The main result of [2] is the following.Theorem. /n the faxo51y ht/n(_/~/) there exists a universal element having the property of finite intersection with respect to a given subfamily of family ~:~'*( $VI), whose power is not greater than continuum.The aim of the present paper is to put certain questions concerning n-dimensional rational spaces, in particular, the questions connected with transfering results about rational spaces to this case.Let us begin with some definitions. Let a be a countable transfinite number. By 7(a) and m(a) we respectively denote a transfinite limit and a nonnegative integer such that a = 7(a) + re(a). Denote by z~/'(a) the family of all spaces M whose a-derivative (see [12], Vol. 1, w is empty. Let J~rc~ be the subfamily of JM(a) consisting of all compact elements of JM(a). For any nonnegative integer k, we let z~//ek(o~) (resp., ~/~(a)) denote the subfamily of ffv/(a) consisting of all elements M having a compact (resp., locally compact) extension with empty (~+k)-derivative. Obviously, J~/'(a) C fie/', ffffe~ C s176 and JMk...